June 28: The Time Warrior Parts One & Two

A brand-new title sequence brings us into season 11, with the fancy slit-screen process and some filters creating a nifty-looking tunnel effect -- one that will become well known as the title sequence for most of Tom Baker's run.  It's not quite the same though, but I still kind of like the streaks of light that come at you at the very beginning (even if I always feel like it's off center).  Not as convinced about the full-length Pertwee portrait receding away though.

This is, pleasingly, a strong opener, as a Middle Ages warlord sees a star fall (in reality a crashing spaceship) and rides out to encounter an armored alien who claims Earth and the moon "for the greater glory of the Sontaran Empire."  Linx, the Sontaran who's crashed, needs to repair his ship, but upon finding that the technologies he needs aren't around in the Middle Ages, he decides to take them from those who do have the technologies.

From there we get a cut to near-contemporary Earth, with the Brigadier (whose hair seems really quite shaggy by this point) announcing that, in the wake of a number of recent kidnappings of important scientists, he's had them all brought to a high-security establishment.  Not that high-security, though; one of the people there is posing as an eminent virologist, but is in fact a journalist named Sarah Jane Smith.  Yes, it's Sarah Jane's first appearance in Doctor Who, here dressed very professionally and not willing to take any nonsense.  She's posing as her Aunt Lavinia, but the Doctor easily finds her out.  "I read your paper on the teleological response of the virus.  A most impressive piece of work," the Doctor tells her.  "Particularly when I realize you must have written it when you were five years old."

But he's content to let her wander around and act patronizingly towards her, as he's more concerned with the missing scientists, and when one of them is snatched away he determines that they've been taken back in time, so he hops into the TARDIS to trace them, with Sarah unwittingly on board (as she thinks that maybe one of the missing scientists, Professor Rubeish, is inside the TARDIS).  The TARDIS lands in medieval England, and Sarah walks out after the Doctor has left, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that they're in a new location (or about anything regarding the interior of the TARDIS, as far as we can tell) -- only to be captured by Irongron's men (after distracting future Boba Fett actor Jeremy Bulloch, as Hal the archer, from loosing his arrow accurately).  And as the Doctor looks on in hiding, Linx, thinking he's alone, removes his domed helmet -- only to reveal an identically-shaped head...

Linx and the Doctor.  (The Time Warrior Part Two) ©BBC

Part two has much of the flavor of a romp.  There's a lot of stuff with Sarah refusing to believe she's been transported back in time, despite all the mounting evidence (perhaps she's suffering from cognitive dissonance), but the result is a lot of great dialogue from Robert Holmes.  "Perhaps the wench is crazed," says Bloodaxe, Irongron's second, to Irongron.  Irongron, meanwhile, has good lines too, such as referring to Lady Eleanor, the person who hired Hal to assassinate Irongron in the last episode, as a "narrow-hipped vixen."  Fortunately, however, Linx interrupts Irongron, allowing Sarah to make her escape.  Linx, it turns out, is providing Irongron with guns and robot knights to fight for him.  And while this is going on, the Doctor is wandering around, causing mischief by shooting the control for the robot knight out of Irongron's hand (which allows Hal and Sarah to escape from the castle) and investigating Linx's workings.  He encounters Professor Rubeish, but as he's talking to him he's found out by Linx.  It seems the Doctor has met the Sontarans before ("So, the perpetual war between the Sontarans and the Rutans has spread to this tiny planet, has it?" he asks), and they end up chatting rather pleasantly, with the Doctor name-dropping his home planet for the first time. ("What is your native planet?" Linx asks.  "Gallifrey.  I am a Time Lord," the Doctor replies.  "Ah, yes," Linx says.  "A race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault.")  You'd think it would be a more important revelation than this, but it's just tossed into the background as a detail as the conversation moves to more important things. Still, it's entertaining to watch the Doctor and Linx chat, with each standing in as a representative for their whole species (and thus their species' point of view).

Meanwhile, Sarah appears to have gotten the wrong end of the stick by believing that the Doctor is the wizard that Hal describes as helping Irongron.  You can sort of see where she's coming from, as there's clearly time travel involved and the Doctor is a time traveller, but it still rather flies in the face of the evidence she was presented with in the first part.  But she's convinced the nearby Sir Edward that they should raid Irongron's castle and capture the Doctor -- who'd probably be fine with that if he knew, as he's locked up by Linx and forced to work for him, and when he's freed by Rubeish he ends up shoving Irongron out of the way before being surrounded by a large group of Irongron's men in the castle courtyard.  "He who strikes Irongron dies!" Irongron cries, raising his axe against the fallen Doctor.